By Shana SagerThe Daily Northwestern
New technology could enable quadriplegics to control the speed, direction and velocity of wheelchairs through their clothing, according to research from Northwestern’s Sensory Motor Performance Program.
Researchers from NU and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago have developed a sensor-laden shirt that monitors how individual patients move best.
Currently, devices available to quadriplegics operate by translating the patient’s shoulder, neck and head movements into specific commands.
With popular devices like the sip/puff switch, patients can make their wheelchairs move by blowing into a straw. The strength of the sip or puff of air determines the wheelchair’s movement.
Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi, professor of physiology at the Feinberg School of Medicine and a researcher on the project, said new sensing garments differ from previous devices because they take advantage of “machine learning.”
Because motor skills can change daily as a disorder progresses, “most disabilities do not remain stable,” Mussa-Ivaldi said.
“One cannot assume that the operator of a wheelchair is fixed,” he said.
The new shirt contains 52 sensors developed at the University of Pisa. These sensors emit electric signals that are adjusted by the movement of the body.
Zachary Danziger, a McCormick graduate student and a researcher at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, said that as a body part moves in the shirt, the material above that area is stretched. This allows electricity to flow through that part of the garment. He said that while researchers are working on ways to eliminate unexpected shirt movements, the technology is promising.
“With all other mechanisms, you have to learn the chair,” Danziger said. “The software that drives the shirt, however, will be able to learn the subject.”
The custom shirt, which is still in the early stages of development, is tailor-made for each patient based on his or her size. Individuals begin by moving naturally so the device can select movements of which the person is capable.
Later, patients participate in a virtual-reality environment that allows the patient to practice and perfect their movements in a safe environment.
Mussa-Ivaldi works with patients suffering from spinal cord injuries. The shirt, therefore, is made for patients without brain damage who understand how they can use their bodies to control a wheelchair. He said that in the future, he hopes to expand such technology to patients with brain injuries, as well.
So far, the shirt has been tested on one disabled patient, who was able to successfully move through the virtual reality environment with the use of his hands.
Researchers are in the process of contacting more disabled patients to participate in future tests.
Reach Shana Sager at [email protected].
